Dorothy West

Acting

Dorothy West

Born 1891-08-28 · Griffin, Georgia, USA

Dorothy West (August 29, 1891 – December 11, 1980) was an American stage and film actress, as well as a radio performer.

Acting credits

The Many Faces of Dracula poster
3.5

Hosted by Christopher Lee, this documentary examines the different actors who have portrayed Dracula over the years.

The Many Faces of Dracula

2000

Rose o' Salem Town poster
5.2

A young girl living in Salem attracts the attentions of The Puritan. After he's brushed off by the girl, he becomes furious and desiring revenge, declares to a council of elders that the girl and her mother are witches.

Rose o' Salem Town

1910

To Save Her Soul poster
5.2

Agnes, a singer in a country church, is practicing one day when a vaudeville manager hears her and offers her a job. Over the objections of the curate who loves her, she accepts the offer and goes to the city. Later the curate goes to hear Agnes perform and, fearing that her soul is being corrupted by show business, he asks her to return to the small town with him. When she refuses, he is prepared to kill her in order to protect the purity of her soul. This brings about her change of heart, and together they return to the little church.

To Save Her Soul

1909

Lady Helen's Escapade poster
4.2

A bored Lady Helen goes slumming as a domestic in a boarding house. There she falls in love with a sensitive young musician. The other women in the house are jealous, and accuse her of trying to steal the musician's violin. Lady Helen retreats to her own home, and arranges a position for the musician which allows them to be together.

Lady Helen's Escapade

1909

No artwork available
NR

Marta asks her husband Jose to buy her a new dress she saw at the market. On his way home, he goes with a friend to a saloon and drunkenly gives the dress to a barmaid. At home Jose tells his wife he lost the dress. She retraces his steps and finds the barmaid modeling her new dress. Faced with the truth, she goes mad.

The New Dress

1911

The Two Paths poster
NR

Two sisters, Nellie and Florence, support themselves and their mother by sewing. A man accompanying a wealthy client tempts first Nellie and then Florence to leave with him. Nellie rejects him, but Florence goes to his decadent apartment and becomes his mistress. Nellie marries a diligent carpenter and raises a growing family. Eventually the Tempter tosses Florence out, and she dies alone and impoverished.

The Two Paths

1911

No artwork available
NR

A tramp overhears a rancher's plans to go to town for the ranch's payroll. He tries to enlist another loafer (the Knight) to help with a robbery. Instead, the Knight helps thwart the robbery.

A Knight of the Road

1911

No artwork available
NR

When John Wilson comes home drunk, his marriage collapses, and he agrees to live separately from his wife in their apartment. His evenings now free, he takes up with a socialite, but uncomfortable with her social ambition, forgets to attend a dinner party she has thrown in his honor. To atone, he buys her an extravagant diamond pin, but before he can deliver it he sees an old suitor leaving his wife’s side of the apartment. Consumed first by jealousy, then remorse, he discovers he still loves the woman he married. A child next door finds the diamond pin while playing in the Wilson apartment and innocently takes it to Mrs. Wilson. Misreading the attached note, Mrs. Wilson assumes the pin is meant as a peace offering and takes her husband back.

The Diamond Star

1911

The Unchanging Sea poster
6.5

In this story set at a seaside fishing village and inspired by a Charles Kingsley poem, a young couple's happy life is turned about by an accident. The husband, although saved from drowning, loses his memory. A child is on the way, and soon a daughter is born to his wife. We watch the passage of time, as his daughter matures and his wife ages. The daughter becomes a lovely young woman, herself ready for marriage. One day on the beach, the familiarity of the sea and the surroundings triggers a return of her father's memory, and we are reminded that although people age and change, the sea and the ways of the fisherfolk remain eternal.

The Unchanging Sea

1910

I Did It, Mamma poster
2.5

A mother punishes her son for eating a plate of cream puffs, unaware that the daughter really did it. As the daughter watches the punishment, she feels guilty, and confesses her misdeed.

I Did It, Mamma

1909

No artwork available
NR

An old colonel is proud as a peacock: his son leads a group of volunteers in the American Civil War. Untill one day his son returns home as a deserter.

The Honor of His Family

1910

No artwork available
NR

Before Tom departs for the city, he becomes engaged to Kate. She gives him half of her broken pendant cross, with the agreement that either can end the engagement by sending his or her half to the other. In a city boarding house, Tom is vamped by a flirtatious manicurist who learns of the agreement and sends Tom half a cross, pretending it is from Kate. Tom realizes he has been tricked and returns to the country and his fiancée.

The Broken Cross

1911

The Usurer poster
5.0

A wealthy, callous moneylender finds a terrifying way to learn about money's limitations.

The Usurer

1910

A Corner in Wheat poster
6.2

On a whim, a greedy tycoon decides to corner the world market in wheat. This doubles the price of bread, forcing grain producers into charity lines and others further into poverty. The film contrasts the differences between the lives of those who work to grow the wheat and the life of the man who dabbles in its sale for profit.

A Corner in Wheat

1909

The Golden Louis poster
4.6

An anonymous donor drops a gold coin in the shoe of a homeless girl as she sleeps. A gambler with a 'sure thing' borrows the coin and wins a fortune, but he can't find her again to repay her.

The Golden Louis

1909

A Flash of Light poster
5.0

An experiment goes wrong and blinds a newly married chemist. The chemist's wife does not want to take on the burden of caring for the blind chemist, and her younger sister take her place.

A Flash of Light

1910

The Day After poster
2.8

Mr. and Mrs. Hilton throw a New Year's Eve party. They agree not to drink the punch themselves, but as guests begin to arrive their resolve weakens, and soon they are both cavorting drunkenly. Next morning Mr. Hilton, feeling very sick, is conscience-stricken over his drunkenness and his behavior with another woman. He fears to face his wife until he discovers that she feels just as guilty herself.

The Day After

1909

The Redman's View poster
5.2

An Indian village is forced to leave its land by white settlers, and must make a long and weary journey to find a new home. The settlers make one young Indian woman stay behind. This woman is thus separated from her sweetheart, whose elderly father needs his help on the journey ahead

The Redman's View

1909

Ramona poster
4.9

Ramona, residing on her wealthy Spanish adoptive mother's rancho in California, falls in love with the Indian Alessandro. When Ramona is denied permission to marry Alessandro, the lovers elope, only to find a life of great hardship and unhappiness amidst the greed and injustice of the white landowners.

Ramona

1910

No artwork available
NR

Jose becomes engaged to Pepita, but still has eyes for Mariana. He runs off with Mariana, but he is accidentally blinded, and she deserts him. Pepita discovers him wandering blindly, and forgives him.

The Spanish Gypsy

1911

The Gibson Goddess poster
4.2

A pack of admirers won't leave a beautiful woman alone at a seaside resort, so she devises a plan. She appears in a leg-revealing swimsuit, but the stockings have been stuffed with cotton to make her limbs appear misshapen. All but one of the men is driven off, and regret it when she removes the misleading leggings.

The Gibson Goddess

1909

His Trust poster
4.1

A Confederate officer is called off to war. He leaves his wife and daughter in the care of George, his faithful Negro servant. After the officer is killed in battle, George continues in his caring duties, faithful to his trust.

His Trust

1911

Lines of White on a Sullen Sea poster
4.2

Soon after their engagement, Bill goes to sea, and Emily vows to stay true until his return. Unknown to her, Bill marries another woman from a different port. Emily waits faithfully for six years, finally becoming dangerously ill. When Bill suddenly appears in town with his family, Joe, who has loved Emily all along, forces Bill to make Emily's final moments happy by pretending he has returned to marry her.

Lines of White on a Sullen Sea

1909

The Eternal Grind poster
NR

Louise (Pickford) is a sewing-machine girl in a sweatshop in New York City. She lives together with her sisters Amy (Loretta Blake) and Jane (Dorothy West) and are all deprived by bad conditions at work and sickness. Louise tries for the three of them to survive and regards herself as the keeper of her sisters. Meanwhile, she stands up to her bosses and complains about the dreadful circumstances they work in. When Amy is seduced by the son of the shop-owner, Louise butts in and stops the romance. He eventually abandons Amy and becomes seriously injured in a cave-in. Louise has a secret crush on the son herself and tries to rescue him, hoping he will admit he loves her. The film is inspired by the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, which took place in 1911. The only version of the film is a nitrate print in the Cinematheque Francaise, but only the first half remains.

The Eternal Grind

1916

Behind the camera